First Explorations into Conscious Business: How to integrate Money and Meaning?

As I have hinted at in earlier posts I want to take this blog onto the next level: From social and doing-good business to 'conscious business'. This is a journey as I do not have a fixated definition of conscious business nor capitalism and even the Wikipedia description is more a starting point. You are invited to join and explore this emerging new field... (which I am considering to do my PhD in).

Let's start with excerpts from one of the very few articles that aim to bring together business and spiritual thinking. Brian Whetten writes in The Huffington Post about "What Does it Mean To Practice Conscious Capitalism?:

"When we open to spiritual reality, our experience is one of abundance. In contrast, modern economic theory is based on scarcity. One of the definitions of economics is "the social science of choice under scarcity." With this comes fear, denial, greed and addiction. There's a reason why economics is called the dismal science.

This does not mean that economics is wrong. What it means is that the world changes as we lift in consciousness. At the physical level, the world looks like it's based in scarcity, win/lose, either/or, and survival of the fittest. But as we're able to see things from a higher perspective, we realize that things are based in abundance, win/win, both/and, and love. ...

We all have a challenge integrating money and meaning, and it shows up in our lives and in society. Notice how we have two types of organizations, for-profit companies that focus primarily on money and non-profits that focus primarily on service. Relatively few groups do both at the same time, because conscious business requires learning how to embrace and heal the conflicts inside ourselves.

In other words, conscious business starts by recognizing that it can't be measured just by the mission of the organization. It also requires focusing on the consciousness of the members in the organization. In other words, it's not enough to focus just on what we do, it also requires focusing on how we are as we do it."

Read the full article here or visit Brian's website www.consciousbusinessnow.com
What an interesting start, thanks Brian. What do you think?

The Top 50 Sustainability Books?

Interested in the most prominent sustainability books? Greenleaf Publishing has an interesting publication summarizing the thinking of new and timeless classics. "The Top 50 Sustainability Books" is written by Wayne Visser, founder of CSR International and very active in the field. Like with every ranking you could argue about the criteria but anyway there us much inspiration in and to learn from these books. You can order at a 20% discount at Greenleaf.

The Top 20 in order with some excerpts accessible:

1. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, by Al Gore, 2006
   
2. Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, 1962
   
3. The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, by Nicholas Stern, 2007
   
4. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E.F. Schumacher, 1973
   
5. Capitalism as if the World Matters, by Jonathon Porritt, 2005
   
6. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond, 2005
   
7. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, 2000
   
8. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, by James Lovelock, 2000
   
9. Our Common Future, by The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987
   
10. Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, by John Elkington, 1999
    
11. The Limits to Growth, by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows and Jorgen Randers, 1972
    
12. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough (A) and Michael Braungart (A), 2002
    
13. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad, 2004
    
14. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs, 2005.
    
15. Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning, by George Monbiot, 2006
    
16. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus, 2003
    
17. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, by Paul Hawken, 1994
    
18. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus, 1999
    
19. The Turning Point: Science Society and the Rising Culture, by Fritjof Capra, 1984
    
20. Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen, 2000

Enjoy catching up with your reading list :)

Video: Eckhart Tolle, Spiritual Master, on the Economic Crisis and Change

Ever since the recent crises, namely climate, financial and economic I have been contemplating about the reasons and what to learn from the challenges. On a professional level, I have been learning through my consulting work at the United Nations and my honorary work for the Mali Initiative. On a more personal level, I have been on a journey of in-sights and in-tution through personal development and meditation.

Through these ways, I have experienced to appreciate challenges as 'signs' that change or transformation is required. I find the connection between our own state of consciousness (inside) and state of economy and environment (outside) intriguing. Therefore, I am going to increasingly share with you content on 'conscious business' and 'inspired leadership'. Hope you are open-minded and interested?

Eckhart Tolle, bestseller author and spiritual Master, talks in the following video about the current economy, its crises and the underlying reasons. He describes why the collapse of ego-based institutions is necessary for the planet and for humanity to survive.

Watch on YouTube or embedded below:

Search and Save the Planet: Green Google Alternatives

Short and sweet, I want to bring to your attention two real Business4Good candidates. Both are 'eco-friendly' search engines giving you the choice of saving rainforest and making you 'googling' CO2-neutral.

1. Ecosia: www.ecosia.org
Eevery search saves about 2 m² of rainforest, according to Ecosia which cooperates with the WWF. It's results are based on Bing and Yahoo.

2. Znout: www.znout.org
Accordning to Znout, you can make your Internet searches CO2 neutral. Based on Google.

Next two these two, there are more green search engines in the market. Even they don't have built in some fancy Google features the green alternatives are certainly good enough for usual searches. Computers are a significant and growing consumer of electricity and therefore producer of CO2 and climate change.

"Electricity generation required for information and communication technologies is currently responsible for 2% of global CO₂ emissions" (Techcrunch)

I just switched to green 'googling' and made one of them my default search engine. Just waiting for the moment when giant Google wakes up by searchers walking off green and then starts greening itself. Goliath, the green Davids are coming.

Happy green searching.

Video: The Story of Stuff

After several people told me about a video "The Story of Stuff" I finally watched it. The 20 minute video is a refreshing, eye-opening mix between documentary and story-telling. Watch it, spread it and decide for yourself how to react to the 'inconvenient truth' of consumerism.

What is The Story of Stuff?
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Haiti: How you can help rebuild a better future

Heavy hearts at the UN. Just coming back from staff briefing on Haiti. A colleague I know survived but the disastrous earthquake is the biggest single loss in UN history and probably the biggest disaster the UN has dealt with.

A video showed shocking damage in Haiti and first hand reports of Haitian colleagues were heartbreaking. Secretary-General called the international response overwhelming and an act of love. It will take years for the people to get back on track.

You can help, too, here a couple of suggestions:

• UN Foundation: UN including the World Food Program is the first responder
  
• Betterplace: Good for smaller, direct projects with regular communications
  
• or if you are a Business, donate and help reconstruct: Business.un.org
  

Businessmen, the Planet Needs You

Summary of a New York times op-ed by Georg Kell, my previous boss and executive director of United Nations Global Compact, a U.N. initiative to encourage businesses to adopt socially responsible policies.

"As negotiating teams labor at the U.N. climate change conference, a rising chorus of business leaders is chanting “seal the deal.”

Though notions of hammering out an actual climate treaty in Copenhagen have been put to rest, many captains of industry are nonetheless urging governments to agree on the core elements of a climate framework that can serve the basis of a treaty. ...

But given the level of inaction and the counteracting forces of organized opposition, further steps will be needed to truly tip the scale in favor of positive business action.

First, progressive businesses must take their case to the industry fence-sitters through an active outreach campaign that includes a number of key messages:

1. climate change is the test of business leadership in the 21st century;
2. the future of the global marketplace hangs in the balance;
3. addressing climate can trigger an era of sustainable prosperity;
4. transformation is possible and viable; and
5. climate change is an urgent ethical issue for the broader role business in society.

Of course, it would be naïve not to acknowledge that there will be industry losers in the end. There will be those companies and sectors that are just too entrenched in the high-carbon economy to adapt and change.

A second action must involve the further mobilization of key stakeholders — most notably civil society, consumers and the investment community. ...

Achieving the low-carbon economy of the future will not be possible without the active role of business. Some have taken up the challenge. It is time for the fence-sitters to join this effort."

Read the full op-ed at New York Times.

Today is UN Day - video message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Today is UN-day celebrating the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, as which "shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements of the United nations and to gaining their support for" its work.

The UN is doing work in many different areas from peacekeeping, health, children and women, environment, human rights to sustainable development. Currently, I am myself involved in facilitating partnerships with companies to create jobs and income opportunities in developing countries, most of them in Africa.

See a video message from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

"The United Nations is doing its utmost to respond — to address the big issues, to look at the big picture. We are forging a new multilateralism that can deliver real results for all people, especially those most in need."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message on UN Day, 24 October 2009

Let's transcend the obsession with economic growth - Stiglitz et al. recommend to go beyond GDP

"Well-being is more than money", a saying that could come from the Dalai Lama but in this case it is the essence of a recent report done by a group of 22 leaders. The group comissioned by French president Sarkozy included Nobel economics prize winner Stiglitz, and Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen who helped create the U.N. Human Development Index.

"The report, delivered to Mr. Sarkozy on Monday, recommends shifting the emphasis from GDP, which measures economic production, to well-being and sustainability. "GDP statistics were originally introduced to measure market economic activity," Mr. Stiglitz said. "But they are increasingly thought of as a measure of societal well-being, which they are not. … Our economy is supposed to increase our well being; it is not an end in itself."

The report suggests looking at household income, consumption and wealth rather than production in the economy as a whole for a better reflection of material living standards... More prominence should be given to the distribution of income and wealth, as well as to access to education and health, the report said, adding that attention should also be given to whether countries are over-consuming their economic wealth and damaging the environment.

The report also recommends that indexes should integrate complex realities, such as crime, the environment and the efficiency of the health system, as well as income inequality."

Read on at Wall Street Journal

Personally, I believe we would benefit tremendously by 'updating' our 'success metrics'. How can we continue to count car accidents, bombs etc. as a positive on our national production measurement? How can we continue to believe that the more and faster the better? Let's support this more holistic way of measuring our well-being!

If you think the recommendation from the Stiglitz-commission doesn't go far enough, maybe we should go to adopt Bhutan's GHI, Gross National Happiness.

Social Entrepreneur example: Oliberté Footwear from Africa!

Working at UNDP in my professional life... I do have a passion for Social Entrepreneurs in my private life. Despite all the red-tape and challenges, they are the ones who push for development with business spirit, in many cases with social rather profit goals.

So when I heard that Tal Dehtiar started "Oliberté Footwear" I was curious. I know Tal from founding and running MBAs without Borders until starting Oliberté. This footwear venture is positioned as "1st Urban Brand from Africa", so hopefully it will show Africa's "Yes, we can" attitude.

"Oliberté is a new revolution showcasing the true potential of Africa. Every time someone buys a pair of Oliberté shoes, they are showing to the world that Africa is more than just poverty - that it is full of pride, power and liberty" said Tal Dehtiar. "All the attention on Africa is focused on alleviating poverty, but the only real way to alleviate poverty on this beautiful continent is to build a middle class that includes fair paying jobs. The more shoes sold, the more fair jobs will be created at local factories where Oliberté works, which ultimately changes lives for the better."

By 2015, Oliberté looks to work in over 10 countries in Africa to source material, accessories and manufacture its shoes that will be sold from Canada to USA to Europe to Australia to Japan. "If we wanted to make cheap shoes, we'd simple go to Asia, but this is NOT about cheap shoes or labour. This is about premium quality and fashionable footwear that creates fair paying jobs in the poorest countries of the world. Pride. Power. Liberty. This is the real Africa. This is Oliberté."

Changing the world to the better with every shoe!?
www.oliberte.com/shoes